Conversations With a 2-Year-Old: Household Item Hide-And-Go-Seek

This seems to be a pretty typical conversation between my daughter and me these days:

ME: (Upon noticing the kleenex box was missing from my bathroom) Chloe, where is Mommy's kleenex?

CHLOE: Huh?

ME: Where is Mommy's kleenex box?

CHLOE: I dunno.

ME: Chloe....

CHLOE: (giggles)

ME: Chloe, where did you put it?

CHLOE: The refrigerator (in a tone like, "of course!")

 

Fun at the Park

The kids and I had a picnic at the park today and I snapped a couple pictures. Just thought I'd share!

 

Labor Day Weekend in San Antonio

For the long Labor Day holiday weekend I took the kids down to San Antonio and we spent a lot of time with Katie and her daughter Ashlyn.  We went to the park...

...and spent tons of time in the pool!

Chloe was all decked out in her floatation gear...

...but when she wasn't in the pool you could find her quietly enjoying a not-so-appropriate novel for a 2-year-old:

We also got to see my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Brian, and cousins Justin and Jaimee (and I finally got to meet her husband and daughter)! Nancy took tons of pictures.  Check them out!

First cousins (Jaimee and me, and her daughter Audrey):

Second cousins:

Dinner:

My cousin Justin had way too much fun throwing the kids around!

Story time with Aunt Nancy:

And story time with Mom:

It was a nice little getaway, since we didn't really get to take a "real" vacation this year.

More photos are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

 

My Baby's in Kindergarten!

Chase started Kindergarten today!

 
We all went to his "Meet the Teacher Night" last week and he loved it.  I took the picture above outside his new teacher's room.  He was a little shy meeting his teacher but he warmed right up when he found his seat and got involved playing a game with his new classmates!

Dad took him to school today and it was hard not being there, but he sent me a picture of my baby boy, all excited for his first day!

He said he was really excited and had a great time.  Yay!  Let the school daze begin!

 

Kidsville 2012

Today I took the kids to "Kidsville," this little "back to school festival" the city does every year. This is the first year we have gone and the kids had so much fun. We started with arts and crafts:

Chase did a great job coloring his paddle ball thing:

While Chloe ended up decorating herself more than her paddle!

(She is looking at her reflection in the mirror behind me... of course!)

Chase played tons of little games, while Chloe very patiently watched.  The only time she wanted to play a game is when it involved shoes!  I hadn't even thought about her playing any of the games until she watched her brother play this one and I looked down to see she was taking her shoes off to get ready for it.  It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.  Click the thumbnail to see the video!

(I'm glad someone else's mom was willing to help her out, since I was willing to sacrifice her success for the video!  Ha ha!)

We also saw a one-man circus act, and then the kids had a blast in the petting zoo.  Chase stole some food from one of the animal troughs so they could feed them.  He was so sweet helping his little sister:

I am not a huge fan of these petting zoo things (way too much slobber and poop for me), so I really appreciated the kids being old enough to run around themselves while I took pictures from afar!

Well, the summer is officially over for me as of this weekend.  I go back to work Monday!

If you're interested, there are more photos in our Photo Album, and another video in our Video Album!

 

Dancing Queen

I am THRILLED to say my little girl has really taken to music and dance! Last night she walked up to me, pointed to the piano and said, "I wanna DANCE!" She loves it when I hit the piano's demo mode so she can dance around to a bunch of different tunes. The first time she asked to dance, this is what I got (click the thumbnail to see the video):

I decided I needed to teach her a couple dance moves.  My favorite is the "hip shake," but I totally forgot to have her do that one for the camera.  Here are some of her other new moves, though!  Click the thumbnail:

After we got ready for bed she decided she would try an interpretive lyrical piece (click the thumbnail):

I can't wait to put her in dance lessons!

Going Away Party

Today we had to say goodbye to our friends Don, Julie and DJ. While it was a sad thing to do, the party itself was tons of fun! The kids got to play on a giant bouncy house/water slide! Click the thumbnail to view the video:

Don took this adorable photo of Chloe drying off after some fun in the "pool:"

Chloe took some time to play in the sandbox, too. At one point she was trying to fill up one toy with sand, by carrying it from the sandbox to the toy... with a sifter! Again, click the thumbnail to see the video:

We also got to eat some goodies! I discovered Chase's love for berries...

...and was reminded of Chloe's love for cupcakes!

Goodbye, Hoffmans!  We will miss you!!